Chariots of Fire sequel is funded by the Chinese

IT was one of the greatest British stories ever put to film.

But the sequel to Chariots of Fire has been left to the Chinese to fund after no UK-based company would back it.

The original, which followed two young British runners training for the 1924 Paris Olympics, won an Oscar in 1981 and is widely seen as one of this country’s great cinematic achievements.

But Joseph Fiennes, the actor who is picking up the role of Scottish athlete Eric Liddell in The Last Race, has now spoken of his frustration at the lack of support from his home country.

He is at the Cannes Film Festival to publicise the film, which will tell the true story of how Liddell moved to China as a Christian missionary after the Olympics before being captured and held prisoner during the Second World War. Liddell, who was played by Ian Charleson in Chariots of Fire, was often referred to as ‘the Flying Scotsman’ and was born in China to missionary parents and lived in the country until the age of five.

At the Paris Olympics his religious beliefs meant he refused to run in the 100 metre heats because they were on a Sunday. He instead competed in the 400 metres, which he won, while his English rival Harold Abrahams won the 100m gold medal.

This is the point at which Chariots of Fire ends.

After this, Eric Liddell quit sprinting and returned to the country of his birth to follow in his parents’ footsteps – the story taken up in the new film.

Despite the British pedigree of the story, it may not even ever be shown in UK cinemas, as no one has been willing to back it.

Shakespeare in Love star Fiennes, 45, said over the years a number of British producers had attempted to make the story but had found it ‘impossible’ to secure the funds needed.

Instead, the responsibility has fallen to a joint Chinese and American production team

He added: ‘I know one or two producers who have known the story, and one in particular who very much wanted to make it.

‘But making a film, an independent movie, is so incredibly difficult. It’s not that no one knew about the material, it’s just so impossible to get financing into place.

‘It was always in the consciousness of many producers, but it takes such monumental effort.

‘That’s why I have to applaud our director and producers, to get this film realised in the right place in China. And I’m sure Eric Liddell would applaud that.’

Revealing the responsibility he feels to Chariots of Fire, Fiennes admitted he approached its director Hugh Hudson for advice on whether to take the role and had also spoke to both Liddell’s daughter and a surviving prisoner of war during his preparations.

He said: ‘I think it [Chariots of Fire] is an amazing film, and depicts famously the moment up until the Olympics.

‘What we’re doing now is the continuation of the Eric Liddell story, which also explores other characters.’

He added: ‘It picks up and finishes in a place that I knew nothing about: Eric at the height of his fame went back to where he was born, in the country he loved.

‘He continued his work as a missionary. Because of that work and that belief, he found himself in a Japanese concentration camp, amongst many others.

‘Unknown to me, at the time, Winston Churchill apparently gave him a [get out of jail] free card but he decided to give that opportunity of escaping to a pregnant woman.

‘He lived by this high standard and he died by it, and that’s a chapter I knew nothing about.’

‘Impossible to get financing in place’